


Trip for Two

by Anonymous



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Mission Fic, POV Outsider of Nara Shikako, Post-Canon, Time Travel, Warring Clans Era, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29100642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Chiyako and Shikako's missing persons search goes a little awry.
Relationships: Aburame Chiyako & Mr. Cranberry, Aburame Chiyako & Nara Shikako & Senju Hashirama, Aburame Chiyako & Uchiha Madara, Nara Shikako & Aburame Chiyako
Comments: 42
Kudos: 207
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	1. Embarkation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_rck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/gifts).



The runner from the tower finds her on her way to buy lunch after a sparsely attended Kunoichi Club. "Sensory squad mission, urgent, gates," the genin messenger gasps. Chiyako gives him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder — not so long ago that was _her_ , and she's very glad to not have to take messenger shifts ever again — and hangs a left to rush home, grab her mission pack, and head straight to the village gates. 

She goes from mildly curious to excited when she sees Nara Shikako waiting for her at the village gates. Chiyako heads straight for her, and barely keeps to a normal run instead of a bouncing skip. "Is my mission with you?" she asks, but it's almost redundant since it's not like there's anyone else waiting around. 

"You and me," Shikako confirms. "We're looking for missing people. B-rank." 

They sign out at the gate and head northwest, Shikako leading the way. 

When they're far enough from the gate not to be overheard by the civilians waiting for entry, Chiyako asks. "So — a search and rescue?" 

"If we're lucky," Shikako says, in that tone of hers that indicates she doesn't ever expect to be lucky. "Twenty-eight people have gone missing from Suttsu-chō since winter. Civilians." Chiyako can't see her face, because they've taken to the trees, but she can hear the it's-not-really-funny twist of Shikako's mouth in the way she adds, "Whoever's doing it finally took someone with connections." 

So it's only a B-rank because the client is important. And they're unlikely to find over two dozen civilians kept alive, some of them for months. 

Shikako read the mission report while waiting for Chiyako at the gate and gives a verbal report of its contents as they run, peppering in additional information and deductions along the way — why this or that victim might have been vulnerable, how Suttsu-chō's recent economic downturn might have played its part in providing a crop of victims. The way Shikako lays things out is just as impressive and admirable as ever, and Chiyako hopes to make jōnin and be at least half as smart some day. 

They reach Suttsu-chō by late afternoon and stop by a few homesteads to ask questions on their way to meet with the client. Some of the farms are eerily empty, and there are a few where Shikako indicates that there are several people home, but no one answers the door. At the homesteads where there _is_ someone willing to talk, no one has any answers: 

"Terrible business," says one woman, who Chiyako had carefully charmed by presenting herself as young and harmless. "I wish they'd at least found bodies." 

"Figured it was animals eatin' them," says a man feeding a yard full of clucking chickens. "Y'know, sometimes a fox gets in and all I find in the morning is blood and feathers." 

_It didn't seem like any of my business,_ is a sentiment they hear again and again. So, further canvassing for details seems like it will be useless. They go to see the client, who's staying in the region's only inn. He's a midrank diplomat, recently arrived from the capital for a yearly visit with his extended family. He and his relatives are hoping that hiring Konoha ninja will provide them with answers, if not a body or rescued cousin. 

From Chiyako's understanding of the situation, it's a very realistic kind of hope. 

* * *

The client provides them with directions to his cousin's house and a set of keys to get inside. The keys are obviously unnecessary but it's better not to make civilians too aware of how little conventional locks deter ninja, so Shikako takes them politely and disappears them into her fancy storage seal with what looks like a sleight-of-hand trick. The house itself is a modest house on the family's land with a small garden. No one else lives there, so there's no one to observe them as they slip inside and study the life of a man who's almost definitely dead. 

There's food in the kitchen, keepsakes on the shelves, clothing in the storage chests. Shikako discovers a loose floorboard with a substantial stash of money tucked underneath. 

"Well, he definitely wasn't looking for work," Shikako says when she's resettled the floorboard. 

"It doesn't seem like he'd have needed anything," Chiyako agrees. The client's cousin had even been a widower, and the house shows clear signs of his late wife still — not the signs of a man ready to move on to a second marriage. "And there's no sign of a fight — right?" Shikako has a lot more experience both investigating and covering things up. 

Shikako nods. "Not even a scuff mark. And no lingering chakra, either, so you're up." 

Chiyako has already had a few kikaichu flitting around the house, but now she coaxes a large swarm, letting the pour into the room from her sleeves. They gather around the kikaichu who've already had time to pick up the missing man's scent and then spread out across the house, flying in looping patterns that let them communicate with each other and Chiyako frequently. 

Kikaichu aren't generally good for long-range no-planning scent tracking of enemy combatants; they couldn't identify an enemy ninja group they'd never encountered before and aren't smart enough to know when it is or isn't suspicious to catch a whiff of a new ninja's scent or chakra, and even if they could they would still transmit the knowledge either too slowly or over too short of a distance to be useful. But that's the kind of tracking Inuzuka and Hyūga are made for, and Aburame are better for investigation or the search for a known entity. 

This is pretty much a textbook case, and the first few minutes are a flood of information that Chiyako shares with Shikako: the client had been here yesterday night, which matches up with the client's story, and the client's cousin had last entered the house less than a week ago. The kikaichu don't pick up any significant scent of anger, fear, or blood. No one but the client and the client's cousin has been in the house as far as the kikaichu can tell. 

From there, there's nothing to do but widen the perimeter. By the time she and Shikako have moved on to tracking the client's cousin and are following his likely last steps through the forest, Chiyako's kikaichu are spread out in a wave and reporting back to her with much less information. It makes conversation much easier. 

"This is actually my first sensory squad assignment," she tells Shikako to pass the time. "Sorry you didn't get someone more experienced." 

"Ah, I requested you, actually," Shikako says. "I knew you could use the experience." 

"Oh." A hint of heat rises to Chiyako's face, her hive too busy tracking in the forest to control the pleased flush. "Thank you!" 

"Well, it wasn't _all_ for you. I knew I'd probably be stumped trying to do this without an Aburame or Inuzuka." 

That seems unlikely. It's _common knowledge_ that Nara Shikako can do _anything_. 

"But you're good at everything," Chiyako argues. 

"Civilians don't have much chakra, so it's harder to sense them," Shikako explains. "And without jutsu use, nothing lingers to sense. Scent tracking is better." 

Chiyako still has her doubts. "Shino-nii said you once tracked a ferret from Land of Rivers half way to Suna without any scent trackers, though, and I don't think I could do _that_." 

Shikako makes a strange sound, halfway between a gasp and a wheeze. Chiyako whips her head around to look at Shikako, alarmed, but she's not injured — she's biting her lips, shoulders shaking, holding her breath? What does that mean? Chiyako frowns, kikaichu fluttering meaninglessly because outclan ninja don't emit pheromones to match their mood and aid in communication and Shikako in particular _never_ has a scent. 

  
"That mission was different," Shikako says after a moment. Her voice is strained, but — but amused. 

She'd been trying not to laugh loudly, maybe, but Chiyako doesn't understand what's supposed to be humorous about it. Pet retrieval missions are a common C-rank. 

It's probably a jōnin thing, she concludes. Jōnin humor is even stranger than regular out-clan humor. 

* * *

Chiyako's kikaichu lead them six kilometers through the forest around Suttsu-chō. They find a dilapidated hamlet, clearly emptied in either an attack or a natural disaster a long time ago — maybe a flood, from the waterline on the houses. By the time she and Shikako reach the hamlet, much of Chiyako's swarm has looped back around to tell her that the trail they've been following doesn't continue on the other side of the abandoned structures. 

"He came here and didn't leave," Chiyako tells Shikako. 

Shikako's lips are a thin line, although she's holding herself as relaxed as she would in a game of replacement tag. "If he's in there, he's dead." 

It isn't as if Chiyako hadn't already come to the same conclusion, but she's glad she didn't have to be the one to say it. 

Chiyako's kikaichu are unable to track the man's scent any farther than one particularly decrepit barn. Shikako makes a few quick hand signs indicating that she can sense enemy chakra inside the barn. Chiyako calls her allies back to her body, leaving only a handful scattered around the hamlet to relay information and keep watch. If the enemy in the barn has back up on the way then Nara Shikako will be a much better early warning system than Chiyako's kikaichu, and Chiyako doesn't yet have a colony so large that the loss of the tracking swarm would be easily shrugged off. 

They approach the buildings cautiously, and Shikako takes the lead as they near the barn. It's a dark, musty space with a carpet of dry, crunchy leaves across the floor. Further into the barn there are places where the roof has collapsed already, letting in motes of late afternoon light that fall across the back wall like misshapen and ill-advised spotlights. Chiyako doesn't see any obvious path from a civilian walking across the floor, and it makes her skin pickle. 

Shikako drops a hand to her side and curls it into the _enemy up_ sign. Chiyako has already registered the hayloft above them, and doesn't glance up at it to check if she can see anything. It's important not to give away their advantage. Chiyako's a handful of kikaichu are already rising, searching for the enemy, their flight paths moving in patterns that mimic native bugs. 

This is a trap, a trap that's been sprung on 28 civilians. Her colony is humming under her skin, just short of being audible. It raises her temperature, which increases her heart rate. 

She's ready for a fight. 

She thinks she's ready for anything they might find. 

She has _Shikako_ here with her, so everything will be fine. 

Above them, something shifts and creeks. One of Chiyako's kikaichu has landed on the enemy, and a moment later the enemy is flinging himself out of the hayloft, his hands coming together to fold into a seal. "What perfect test subjects!" he shouts. 

A thick tendril of shadow whips out from the underside of the hayloft, piercing him through the shoulder while other tendrils follow, trying to prevent him from completing his seal. 

But it's too late. 

Like most ninja, this one is only using the hand seal to help him focus. Even without his hands connecting his chakra has already serged out to spring the trap, and now a series of strange grooves in the floorboards, carved in precise lines, glow with sickly light. 

It feels like the light yanks on every part of Chiyako, trying to disassemble her, and it doesn't _hurt_ but it's impossible to resist even as Chiyako floods her system with chakra and her hive riots. She's going to collapse, she's going to dissolve, she's going to _cease being_

— and then Shikako says **NO** and everything is white, white, white. 


	2. Fight & Flight

Chiyako knows things. She knows what it feels like to discover a jug of water has an inconvenient leak in the bottom. She knows what it looks like when a rusty pipe in an old apartment building in Konoha bursts and you have to help your friend stop the leak. She knows what it feels like to slip off the side of a mountain, to be standing between a strong fire and a new source of oxygen, to be stabbed in a place where you lose a great deal of blood very, very quickly. 

She even knows how the sudden collapse of a kikaichu colony feels, its members dying and dying and dying and the eggs compromised and the surviving members burrowing their way out to the surface, fleeing Chiyako's body in a last ditch struggle for survival. 

What she does not know is this feeling, the Shikako-said- **NO** feeling that is like all of those things but worse, and different, and exhilarating, and horrific. There is a dam fit to burst, or a tightrope, or a wild animal? She doesn't know where she is. She barely remembers who she is, or who she was with. 

There's still a colony nestled tight against Chiyako's everything, drawing further into her like seaside villagers fleeing up a mountain when the ocean suddenly retreats. 

There's a field of stars tying itself around her like she and her colony are a haul of helpless fish. 

There's a hint of a melody demanding that Chiyako harmonize. 

There's a barn again! 

Chiyako breathes in fresh air and collapses clumsily to her knees. The floor of the barn is free of leaves, something she only realizes when her knees and hands make contact with smooth floorboards because it's _dark_ now and the forest outside is alive with the sounds of nighttime. 

No enemy drops to the floor, but they might have landed while Chiyako was...was.... 

What _happened?_

She can't just kneel there on the ground, confused and defeated and exhausted. Staying still means being an easy target. Losing herself to introspection is the quickest path to being dead. This situation requires action, currently, not analysis. 

Chiyako prompts a few kikaichu to leave her body and drift out in search of more information. They don't seem weakened at all, and it's better for them to search the pitch black barn than for Chiyako to attempt it at the moment — she's tapped nearly dry, the kind of chakra exhaustion where even breathing takes noticeable effort. Already she can feel large portions of the colony preparing to hibernate so that they can return most of their chakra into Chiyako's system, an advantageous emergency response bred into all Aburame colonies since the middle of the second war, but it will take long moments for their efforts to make any difference. 

The kikaichu return, one after another, creeping up Chiyako's sleeves and into her entry pores where it will be easier for them to deliver information without expending a great deal of energy. They'll huddle there at her wrists, small bumps under her skin, waiting in case she needs them. The kikaichu who return are only the ones that Chiyako just sent out; the hive members who had been outside her body are lost or dead. 

The room is empty except for one ally, an ally even lower on chakra than Chiyako — low enough that they should be dead, but they're not. 

Shikako. 

Chiyako crawls across the floor of the barn, unwilling to burn energy to stand up just yet. The kikaichu Chiyako had marked Shikako with at the start of the mission is missing, but a new one now lingers on Shikako's neck. It reports that Shikako's pulse is steady and her breathing strong, stronger than Chiyako's. But....unconscious. Definitely unconscious. She doesn't wake when Chiyako cautiously touches her and she doesn't wake when Chiyako even more cautiously softly calls her name. 

That's not supposed to happen to jōnin. That's _really really_ not supposed to happen to jōnin of _Nara Shikako's_ calibre. Shikako is supposed to laugh in the face of danger while quietly rearranging everything to work out for the best, not lie still and helpless on the floor of a dark barn with only a chakra exhausted chūnin to watch over her. 

But is there time for Chiyako to lay here on the rough hewn wood of the barn floor and feel badly for herself or, even worse, panic? 

No. 

The mission has become exponentially more dangerous — what kind of seal can knock out a jōnin _and_ repair an old abandoned barn? — but no mission is so dangerous that basic principles can be cast aside. Chiyako is weakened and her commanding officer is down. She has to retreat to a defensible position while she waits for back up to arrive, and she has to bring Shikako with her. 

She _has to_ , no matter how impossible it feels. 

* * *

If Chiyako could have her way, she would take Shikako back into the forest and retreat several kilometers out. As things stand, she'd be lucky to make it out of direct line of sight of the barn...which is why she hauls herself and Shikako up into the barn's hayloft. It leaves Chiyako gasping for air that she can't quite take in fast enough, but it's the best possible choice. The hayloft is dry, hidden, filled with appropriate bedding, relatively easy to fortify, and absolutely the last place an enemy alerted by the seal's activation would think to look for them. As soon as Shikako is settled, Chiyako can collapse into the hay next to her. 

Her part is nearly done. 

"Mr. Cranberry," she says quietly. She knows he's been hiding in her coat, has felt him creep from inside her breast pocket to huddle under her collar when she'd moved to carry Shikako earlier. 

Mr. Cranberry creeps out cautiously, skittering across her shoulder and dropping down to the hay so he can circle around and stay where she can see him properly when she turns her head to the side, letting the hay pick her cheek and catch against her glasses. 

It isn't necessary for her to see Mr. Cranberry for them to communicate, but it's nice to do it anyway. She's always been very lucky to have him, her oldest friend. 

She thinks he'd been nearly as excited as she was to go on a mission with Shikako. 

"I know you won't want to leave us," Chiyako starts. 

Mr. Cranberry huddles miserably against the hay. No, he doesn't. He wants to stay right here. He'll bite anyone who tries to ensnare him. He'll build the _best_ web, to protect them, like they've been working on with Shino-nii. He can do it. He'll stay with her like she's staying with Shikako. 

Chiyako is sniffling back tears before she realizes it. With only a small fraction of her kikaichu still awake, she's not risking anything by letting her emotions take on the typical human physiological signs of strong emotions and she's not getting any help in regulating her physical response, either. She doesn't _want_ to cry, even still, because she knows she's still very much in danger, but a few tears slip out anyway, quickly getting lost in the hay. 

"I know you'd stay." Mr. Cranberry has stayed with her in situations that were objectively much more dangerous to him. "But," she adds, "I need you to go get help. Only you can do it." 

Mr. Cranberry has, in essence, been a secret additional student for nearly every lesson Chiyako has ever had. She had spent many late nights in the academy re-explaining Iruka-sensei's lessons to him. Spiders, especially of Mr. Cranberry's species, are not naturally prone to the kind of cooperative thinking it takes to support a hive or colony or village or family. But he had been a diligent and curious student. 

It's logical and necessary that he be the one to go. Even if the kikaichu could travel as far as fast as Mr. Cranberry, they'd have no hope of communicating with any non-Aburame Konoha ninja they come across. 

Mr. Cranberry twitches his left front leg in the rapid-fire code they'd developed for discussing things too complex for even chakra-enhanced pheromones. _I'll be back_ , he's saying. _Promise, promise, promise_. 

"I'll see you again soon," she promises in return, although it's far from certain. 

He goes away, disappearing for a long while while he scales and descends hay bales in the dark. When she next catches sight of him he's standing on the edge of the door in the gable end of the building, the one the farmer loads hay through. He's pointing his abdomen to the sky and spinning silk that Chiyako can't see but knows must be there. He spins and spins it and soon — probably with the aid of the small amount of chakra that she's taught him to use — Mr. Cranberry is whisked away from the barn and out into the open night air, ballooning on his spider silk to travel through the sky as fast as the wind can take him. 

And then...that's it. 

There's nothing more Chiyako can do. 

* * *

"I do not recognize her." 

"She's definitely one of ours," a second voice says. "I don't think you have so much contact with our children that you know all of them." 

The first voice says, "True." 

A third voice says, "And this other one?" 

"Unlikely," Number 2 says. "Visual observations only." 

Chiyako can feel Mr. Cranberry on her face, his legs familiar from many, many mornings when she had been woken in nearly exactly the same way. It keeps her from tensing as she struggles to remember exactly what situation she's in and why. 

Hay. Bone deep exhaustion. The voices of strangers. Mr. Cranberry is back. 

Chiyako forces her eyes open to look at the three ninja standing over her. They're her clanmates, and she can taste the tension in their pheromones, even though too much of her colony is still dormant to process any kind of complex emotions. This is her rescue, the one she and Shikako desperately need, but — something about it isn't right? 

There are three Aburame in the hayloft with her and Shikako. One of them is next to Chiyako, kneeling in the hay and checking her for injury. The second is by Shikako. The last is standing guard by the hayloft door. 

"Don't try to move," the Aburame closest to Chiyako urges. This is the second one that had spoken, and his voice is urgent but not harsh when he speaks to her. "We will ascertain if you are well enough to transport, and if..." His hand briefly comes to rest on her shoulder. "...If your colony can be saved. If they can't, my colony can stabilize you on our return journey." 

It takes a _lot_ of skill for an Aburame medic to drive out a failing colony that's refused to vacate its host and then take over the necessary functions long enough to get the patient a replacement colony. Chiyako can't even _imagine_ doing so in the field, and for a moment she's so stunned and impressed and worried at the idea of it that she loses track of the details and just nods. No Aburame would offer such a course of action they weren't certain it could be done. 

"You did very well, making such a good ally in dire circumstances," Number 2 adds, a small tilt of his head indicating that he means Mr. Cranberry. "You'll keep that company, I hope." 

_That_ doesn't make any sense. Chiyako's had Mr. Cranberry for a _really_ long time, and she's always introduced Mr. Cranberry to her clanmates. When she first found him, she asked every cousin and auntie and uncle she could find to tell her everything they could about spiders. 

Not that Chiyako thinks everything she does is immediately noticed by all of her clanmates...but she also doesn't recognize this man or his companions. They're familiar, but they're definitely strangers. How likely is it, that she wouldn't know even one out of three Aburame? And: why is the entire team made up of Aburame? 

Konoha never does that. _Never_. It makes teams weaker. It makes the village weaker. 

"I don't know your name," Chiyako says, and then recalling that they also hadn't recognized her (and isn't that strange, too?) she adds, "My name is Chiyako." 

"Yūta," says Number 2. He gestures to One and Three: "That's Hideyo, and that's Shizu." 

"Do you know the name of this one?" Shizu asks. Shizu is the one closest to Shikako, and she doesn't seem pleased by whatever she's deduced about Shikako since she last spoke. 

Chiyako blinks. "That's Nara Shikako." 

It's actually even harder to believe that this introduction is necessary than it was to believe that these Aburame don't know Chiyako — who _hasn't heard_ of Nara Shikako? What kind of adult ninja doesn't recognize her _on sight_? — but Chiyako doesn't have time to mull it over because the hay loft is suddenly so tense it feels as if Chiyako could pluck the air itself like the strings of an instrument. The Aburame are outputting chakra intent so thick and obvious that it hangs in the air like a physical manifestation, and Chiyako can feel it even without the usual assistance of her hive. 

"Nara never work or travel alone," Hideyo observes, ominous, as kikaichu seep from his sleeves and the bottom of his long coat, a thick black cloud that spreads out in a threatening search pattern. 

"We should move immediately," Yūta agrees. 

"We'll kill the Nara first," Shizu says. There's a blade in her hand, at the ready. 

This has gotten wildly, horrifically out of control. Chiyako's colony is still dormant and Shikako is still unconscious. These ninja _might_ be Aburame but they are _definitely not_ Konoha ninja. 

" _Stop_ ," Chiyako demands. She shoves herself up on her elbows, just far enough to get a good look at Shikako and try to pin Shizu with a determined look alone. 

Whatever's going on, whoever these people really are, no matter _what_...protecting Shikako has to be her top priority. 

"Don't move," Yūta says, reaching out a hand to press her down. "Your colony—" 

Chiyako does not want to be touched by this man anymore. "I am not impaired," she says sharply. 

Mr. Cranberry crawls off the crown of her head and over her ear to stand where her neck meets her shoulder, a clear threat to Yūta. Good. Kikaichu are useful for filtering venom, so Yūta might not die if he's bitten, but it's far from a sure thing. Mr. Cranberry has never not been dangerous. 

Yūta's hand stops, hovering over her shoulder, deterred by Mr. Cranberry for the moment. "Over ninety percent of your colony is dead. You are essentially mortally wounded." Aburame medics don't believe in pulling punches, beating around bushes, or telling white lies. 

"It isn't necessary for you to watch," Hideyo offers. 

Shizu says, "Close your eyes," and brings the knife down even as Chiyako flinches forward, desperate — 

A hand of shadow catches Shizu's arm. The dim shadows of the hay loft twist and warp, entwining Shizu, and beneath her Shikako rolls out of the way and in the same smooth motion hops to her feet. 

Her eyes are dark, even in the low light of the hay loft. Light dapples the skin of her cheeks strangely, and spreads through the strands of her hair. It doesn't really give off any light in a _conventional_ sense, but it glows all the same, and the effect is disorienting when she lunges forward for Shizu. They trade taijutsu blows in the dark, the motions confused by Shikako's light patterns and control of the shadows. 

Shizu is understandably clumsy, half-restrained by the shadows sticking to her like webbing, and doesn't stand a chance. Their fight ends when Shikako sweeps Shizu's legs out from under her and the shadows of the room swell over her like a wave, pinning her to the hay, possibly smothering her. 

Chiyako has never seen Shikako use sage mode before. 

Lacking an active hive of her own at the moment, Chiyako can't tell if Shizu is simply pinned, unconscious, or dead. She'd put her money on unconscious — Shikako _knows_ how to fight an Aburame, and wouldn't think that pinning one down was enough to take them out of a fight — but not knowing for _sure_ is disorienting. It's like missing a sense, being deaf or blind in the middle of this fight in addition to being chakra exhausted. It means that when kikaichu swell into the air, descending from the ceiling and emerging from the hay and creeping out from under Hideyo and Yūta's coats, Chiyako is surprised. She hadn't known where the kikaichu were hiding, can't tell which swarms belong to which hive, and can't eavesdrop on the plans Hideyo and Yūta are definitely making silently via their hives. 

It means Chiyako is surprised when Yūta suddenly scoops her up into his arms and makes for the hayloft exit, because her eyes were on Shikako. 

Chiyako can feel the industrious, focused hum of Yūta's hive beneath his skin, stirred up and ready to fight. The feeling of the hive would normally be comforting, familiar and welcome, but being unable to sense the hive's pheromones just makes it feel safe and wrong. Yūta is an Aburame, there's no doubt about that, but he's also the enemy. 

"Put me down," Chiyako demands. 

"We must escape," Yūta replies. "You're young, still — they will understand." 

Aburame medics have long had a duty to save the young before the old, those who _will_ be strong before those who currently _are_ strong. Where many other clans would prioritize Hideyo and Shizu, the both of them being of child-bearing age and as well as being able to bring in significant money to the clan, the Aburame valued existing children. It had often kept them strong and stable during the Warring Clans era. 

There will be no arguing Yūta down from this escape. 

"Mr. Cranberry," Chiyako hisses at the same time she palms a kunai.. 

Normally she would signal him silently, but forget being deaf or blind — lacking the use of her hive is really like being _handcuffed_ and _gagged_. 

Mr. Cranberry leaps the short distance between Chiyako's collar and Yūta's face. The throat would be a better target, of course, to introduce the venom straight to the jugular, but Mr. Cranberry doesn't have time to scurry down Yūta's collar — and it would be dangerous for him there, too, because he might be surrounded by Yūta's kikaichu and killed. 

Biting Yūta's face is faster, safer, and also infinitely more alarming even for someone who _likes_ creepy-crawlies. 

Yūta drops the arm that's been supporting Chiyako's shoulders, trying to brush Mr. Cranberry away while switching to carrying Chiyako under his arm like a sack of flour. Chiyako puts a stop to _that_ by lashing out with her kunai, grazing the underside of his upper arm when he's just a little too slow to drop her because Mr. Cranberry has successfully bitten him. 

Hay is supposed to make for a soft landing, and flopping down on it earlier to pass out had certainly seemed comfortable, but Chiyako discovers that being dropped straight onto a pile of haybales is a different story. It knocks the wind out of her, making the struggle to get to her feet even worse than she'd expected. 

She's only up to her knees when she sees Yūta staggering towards her. He's knocked his glasses off, revealing slightly glazed-eyes and an already-swelling spider bite on his left cheek. Even with his moves getting sloppy and uncoordinated from the poisoning he still manages to knock the kunai out of her hand in a smooth movement. He reaches out and leans down like he's going to try to pick her up again, so Chiyako brings her knees up and mule-kicks him in the chest. 

He's knocked over, more a testament to the strength of Mr. Cranberry's venom than Chiyako's kick, and lands awkwardly. "You have to trust me," Yūta tells her, and starts to get to his feet. 

Chiyako scrambles away, up the hay pile, back in the direction they came from, towards Shikako. She hopes Mr. Cranberry is okay, lost among the hay somewhere, and wishes she had kikaichu to send out to find him and guide him back to her. She doesn't want to keep fighting Yūta — knows that if the venom hasn't knocked him out yet then it probably won't; his kikaichu will be hard at work countering it by now and soon he'll improve and even in this state if it comes to taijutsu or grappling Chiyako is too weak from chakra exhaustion to have even a slim chance of defeating him without getting in a lucky and fatal stab. 

Yūta is the enemy, but Chiyako doesn't really understand _why_ and she doesn't want to kill him. What if he's been brainwashed? She should try to bring him home. The clan could help him. Chiyako has a duty to care for all Aburame, just as Yūta has a duty to save the youngest clanmates first. 

Just running away to buy Shikako enough time to finish fighting Hideyo and come to find her would be enough to keep from having to make the choice but Chiyako's limbs are still heavy like lead weights and her lungs are tight with just the effort of breathing a little harder than usual. It won't be long before Chiyako is into the kind of dangerous chakra exhaustion that really _will_ make her body shut down and her hive abandon her. 

The facts are this: 

She cannot allow herself to be used as a hostage against Shikako. 

Standing up to run away when just crawling over hay bales is a punishing slog seems impossible. 

Using chakra will likely kill her. 

Chiyako draws another kunai from her pouch as Yūta starts moving forward again. If Yūta's lucky then Chiyako won't stab him _so_ fatally that he bleeds out before Shikako can give him medical attention. She'll do it. She'll win this fight, because she _has to_. 

And then Shikako comes leaping over the haystack Chiyako's been trying to scale. The fight is so short Chiyako almost misses it, because Shikako has him in shadow possession from the moment she lands — or maybe even before that — and then she just puts a knock out tag on his forehead, ending the fight. 

Trembling from exhaustion and relief, Chiyako sinks down onto the haybale under her, practically melts against it. Shikako is at her side a moment later, checking her pulse but not forming medical chakra for a diagnostic check. 

Maybe forming the pure yin chakra necessary for that is too hard in sage mode? But then, Chiyako thinks the Nara jutsu are yin techniques and Shikako hadn't had any trouble with that...but maybe it's different. It would be impolite to ask, of course; clan techniques are clan techniques. 

"Was he right about your hive?" Shikako asks. Her face is carefully neutral, ready to receive and deal with whatever information Chiyako gives her, even if it's bad news. Even if it's _really_ bad news. 

"No," Chiyako says. Her voice comes out softer than she usually speaks — she needs to not stress her lungs — but she explains that the kikaichu are just hibernating, not dead. Yūta just hadn't seemed to know that hibernation was a thing, even though Yūta's hive should do it, too, because he's not old enough to have gotten his hive before the Second War. 

"Yeah, they're not wearing forehead protectors, either," Shikako observes idly. "And the barn is seeming kind of...new, right?" 

Chiyako glances around. Remembers how dry and smooth the floor had suddenly felt before, how sturdy the narrow stairs up to the hayloft had been, how strange it is that she can't find the little breaks in the roof even now that pre-dawn light should be illuminating the sky outside in contrast to the darkness of the inside of the barn. 

"Oh," Chiyako says, in response to this belated realization. _Time travel_. She doesn't waste her time saying anything like _I didn't think that was possible_ because obviously it is. 

They're in a lot more trouble than Chiyako had realized. 

"We have to move," Shikako says. "Do I need to carry you?" 

Chiyako nods. She's not sure she could even manage a piggyback right now, but she knows Shikako is right that they can't stay in the barn waiting for the pre-village Aburame to wake up. "We have to find Mr. Cranberry first," she says. 

Shikako blinks. "Can't leave a teammate behind," she agrees. "How do you usually find him?" 

"My kikaichu lead him back, most," Chiyako says. "But..." 

"Ah." Shikako nods in understanding. "I'll handle it, then." She stands very still for a moment before turning about 100 degrees to her left and taking a few short steps to reach down into the hay. Her hands flick into quick Konoha signs — _enemies down_ , and _moving out_ , and _chūnin status: acceptable_ to catch Mr. Cranberry up on what he's missed since he's been huddled amid the hay and let him know that Chiyako is okay. Then she lays her hand flat against the floor. 

Mr. Cranberry crawls onto her hand, and Shikako holds extremely, precisely still. Chiyako realized a couple years ago that Shikako actually really doesn't like spiders — something Mr. Cranberry could probably tell from the start — but Shikako has never failed to treat Mr. Cranberry well, first as a animal companion when Chiyako was a child and then as a team member when Chiyako graduated from the academy. She doesn't shudder or flinch when Mr. Cranberry walks over her skin, and she cradles him carefully as she brings him back over to Chiyako. 

_Thanks_ , Mr. Cranberry raps against Chiyako's hands the moment he's passed over. _Thanks, thanks, thanks_. 

"Mr. Cranberry says thank you," Chiyako passes on. 

Shikako's lips twitch into a slight smile. "You both did well," she says. "Now let's get the hell out of here before they wake up." 

* * *

After inhaling a ration bar and a bottle of water, Chiyako falls asleep while Shikako runs (Shikako encourages it, "because we can both agree that organ failure would be bad, right?") and when she wakes up the sun has risen high in the sky while they traveled. The sweltering afternoon sunshine is _so_ warm that Chiyako eventually has to ask to stop for a moment so that she can take her coat off. 

She doesn't have the chakra to regulate her temperature, and can't risk cooking her hibernating hive alive by overheating. 

"We might as well stop for a rest," Shikako admits as she sets Chiyako down carefully. Her senjutsu-powered doe markings have grown dimmer and dimmer and Chiyako belatedly realizes that that was a sign of her getting _tired_ , rather than the sage markings being less visible in broad daylight. 

"Did we get far enough away?" Chiyako asks. 

Shikako shrugs. "They're probably better at tracking than we can be at hiding right now, so distance probably doesn't really matter. But if they are following us, they're so far away I can't sense them yet." 

What Shikako really means is that _Chiyako_ probably isn't good enough at hiding to evade a group of determined Aburame. Normally Chiyako would feel bad about that, because she's pretty sure that Shikako could have done it by the time she was Chiyako's age and Chiyako has always _really_ wanted to live up to the example provided by Shino-nii's coolest, most badass friend...but she's too tired to even be embarrassed that she's not sneaky enough. She'll just have to work on it. Later. After they've figured out what to do about having traveled through time. 

Chiyako takes off her jacket, lays it out on the scraggly forest grass, and flops down on it. Shikako sits down next to her and gives her a ration bar, a bottle of water, and rehydration powder. Chiyako dumps the hydration powder carefully into the bottle and reseals it to shake the mixture up lazily. The ration bar wrapper crinkles as she eats and the water sits weird and heavy in her stomach, but Chiyako powers through knowing she needs it before she goes back to sleep. 

"Are you going to eat anything?" Chiyako asks Shikako. She can't imagine that Shikako isn't well supplied. Even Chiyako's mission pack, tucked away in a storage scroll inside her vest, has enough food and water for extended impromptu camping. 

"I have seals," Shikako says, gesturing at her mouth. 

Chiyako can't imagine what exactly that _means_ , but she nods anyway — as long as Shikako is taking care of herself. 

"Get more rest. I'll wake you when it's time to move again." 

* * *

When Shikako wakes her up later, she insists Chiyako eat another ration bar and drink more water immediately. _Then_ Chiyako can stand up carefully and do a few simple stretches. They make her wince because she hurts _all over_ from a combination of lingering chakra exhaustion, overexertion, and incidental bruising. The fight with Yūta had been short, simple, and not very dangerous, but Chiyako had still managed to bang herself up. 

She definitely needs more training to handle that kind of fight. Grappling and weight training, maybe? But those kinds of considerations can wait for after the mission — the sun is setting and the temperature is dropping, so Chiyako puts her coat back on before Shikako picks her up. 

Even though she's exhausted already just from stretching, Chiyako finds she can't fall asleep immediately like she had before. Mr. Cranberry is tapping a furious rhythm against Chiyako's neck, a whispered apology, and yeah. Chiyako knows she has to say something. 

It's kind of weird, being on a mission with Shikako, because she's a _legend_ but she's also like a big sister. A person Shino had always said they could depend on, the best kind of teammate and nearly a member of the family...and Chiyako had almost let Shizu stab her to death. Had been too weak to really do anything to prevent it, and is currently still too weak to even move under her own power. 

It probably would have been better if Shikako had requested a different Aburame for this mission. 

"I'm really sorry." She mutters into Shikako's jacket, her eyes pressed tight. "I couldn't do anything." 

"Uh, no, Chiyako—" 

Chiyako interrupts Shikako to add, "Mr. Cranberry says he's sorry, too! He thought he was bringing help. I _told him_ to go get allies and bring them back and didn't even consider—" She cuts herself off, mortified by the sudden emotion in her voice and her face burning from the shame of almost getting Shikako killed.  


"It's not your fault," Shikako says. "Not every mistake can be avoided. You and Mr. Cranberry did well." Her tone is matter-of-fact rather than gentle, an assessment as Chiyako's C.O., rather than the reassurance she might give as a family friend if they were back in Konoha. 

Chiyako doesn't feel like she's doing great, or even like she's done anything helpful at _all_ , but she nods anyway, trying to take Shikako's words at face value. This is a serious situation, a mission complication neither of them were prepared for, and Shikako is a jōnin. If Chiyako were really doing badly, if she or Mr. Cranberry had made any serious mistakes, Shikako wouldn't pull her punches on justified criticism because making Chiyako feel bad would be better than letting Chiyako get them all killed. 

It's logical to believe that Shikako, who has more experience, is being truthful in addition to comforting. Chiyako is simply more vulnerable to the whims of emotional reactions without her hive helping to regulate her body's processes. 

"Okay," Chiyako says, voice small and still feeling miserable despite the logic of it all. "Okay." 

* * *

Chakra exhaustion is _awful_. Chiyako eventually drifts to sleep again while Shikako keeps them moving, and when it's time to stop again she's slept through the night and the morning _again_ and has to struggle her jacket off to keep from overheating before she can flop down on the ground. 

"Ugh," she expresses. Her hive hasn't even stirred yet. 

Shikako settles next to her and makes a sympathetic sound. 

Chiyako turns her head to look at Shikako, sitting perfectly straight-backed for meditation, her senjutsu marks ebbing and flowing as she cycles nature energy. Normally it would be rude to ask, but considering the situation... "How long can you keep that up?" 

"Technically indefinitely," Shikako says, "but eventually meditation can't substitute for sleep. I'm not looking forward to the recovery period after I let it go, though. We need to be somewhere safe before them." 

A recovery period. It makes sense, but Chiyako hadn't even considered it. She rolls onto her back and squeezes her eyes shut against the suddenly rush of helplessness that's washed over her. "How will we find somewhere safe?" she asks. "What are we going to _do?_ " 

Shikako is silent. The moment stretches. "I don't know," she says eventually. "We won't give up." 

* * *

Birds chirp. It's a little after dawn and Chiyako stirs awake without being woken by Shikako, who's still sitting next to her in a perfect meditation pose. Chiyako's hive has _finally_ resumed an absolute minimum amount of activity, meaning she's regained enough chakra for a majority of the hive that maintains her systems and provides her with enhanced senses to get to work. The combat drones won't be ready for awhile, but at least Chiyako's blood will be filtered and her temperature regulated and her sweat glands optimised. 

Things are looking up, maybe? 

Shikako opens her eyes and says, "Someone _has_ been following us and they're finally closing in." 

Or not. 

"Could you outrun them alone?" Chiyako asks. 

"No," Shikako says flatly. 

Chiyako's not sure if she means _no, because they're too fast_ or _No, because I couldn't leave you behind_ , but it amounts to basically the same thing. 

"I'm not going to be much use in a fight," Chiyako confesses. She's expanded her skills beyond clan techniques, of course, a lack of chakra is still going to be a problem. 

"Hm," Shikako says, giving her a considering look. She breaks from her meditation pose to give Chiyako two water scrolls, a generous handful of explosive tags, extra kunai, and about twenty single-tag barrier seals. Then she pauses, and says, "You've been doing kenjutsu training, right?" 

Chiyako waggles a hand back and forth. "Some." It's not really an Aburame mainstay, but Hanabi had _really_ wanted to learn, and she'd said her father would make less stupid faces about it if the rest of her team was also learning. Chiyako is really into being an excuse for Hanabi to do things Hyūga aren't supposed to do. "But I don't actually have a sword." 

"Probably better than what I had," Shikako mutters to herself, and hands over a weird lump of metal. 

"Um," Chiyako says. 

Shikako adjusts her grip on it a little — like a sword hilt, of course, given the question about kenjutsu — and Chiyako suddenly realizes that she's holding _the Nidaime's sword_. 

" _Um_ ," Chiyako repeats, but with more feeling this time. "Would Tsunade-sama really be okay with me having it?" 

It's a priceless Senju artifact. There was a long period of Chiyako's childhood where she heard nothing but older ninja asserting that Shikako's continued use of it _meant_ something, like that Shikako was sure to be Tsunade's pick for the Rokudaime. That obviously hadn't happened, but still...Chiyako had always figured that Shikako having it meant _something_. No one could deny that Shikako was close to the Goddaime. 

"Tsunade would want you to not die," Shikako says wryly. "Everything else is details. Try turning it on. It shouldn't take much at all. Less than the fire-starting jutsu." 

Chiyako sneaks the smallest hint of chakra into the hilt and the blade blossoms to life, crackling and bright. Holding it active has no discernable chakra drain, but Chiyako deactivates it after a few moments rather than stand there with it on. 

It's really, really cool, but Chiyako wishes she'd gotten to try it out under different circumstances. 

Shikako goes back to meditating, since there's no point in wearing themselves out running, and Chiyako takes the time to check her kunai pouch, eat the protein bar tucked away there, and stretch. Shikako has picked a well-covered bit of forest and will probably take advantage of the shadows of the trees in the coming fight. The forest is _strange_ , young and small without enough space or sturdy branches for tree running, although thanks to a childhood of replacement tag Chiyako will definitely be able to take advantage of the trees for cover and maneuvering. 

Eventually Shikako opens her eyes and climbs to her feet, standing next to Chiyako with the air of someone waiting to meet a friend for lunch, which is the Team 7 version of a serious combat stance. Chiyako wonders who exactly they're about to fight — Shikako hadn't _said_ it was the Aburame, she's realized belatedly — but she absolutely never would have guessed who it actually turns out to be: 

Senju Hashirama. 

The Shodaime. 

The _literal_ Shodaime because he's wearing the hat and robes when he approaches at the jōnin version of a light jog. Chiyako is suddenly very glad she'd decided to clutch the hilt of the Sword of the Thunder God without turning it on, because meeting Senju Hashirama while using Senju Tobirama's sword would just be _too much_. 

He stops when he's within easy talking distance and waves cheerfully. "Hello!" he calls. "Could you just give her back? The Aburame are _really_ unhappy and she's apparently very sick." 

They can't fight the Shodaime. They _can't_. Right? Chiyako's not going to glance at Shikako to check her expression because taking her eyes off of the S-rank ninja in front of her would be a bad idea, but Shikako's probably thinking their way out of this. Chiyako hopes. 

"She's fine," Shikako says mildly. "They were actually mistaken, anyway. She belongs with me." 

Hashirama smiles a little bit more and the air in the forest gets _heavy_. "Of course I understand that sometimes we all have misunderstandings," Hashirama says, "but don't you agree that it's wrong to keep a child from her clan?" He's taken a tone that makes him sound _extremely_ reasonable, but the pressure of his intent would make Chiyako break out into a cold sweat if her kikaichu hive hadn't already begun to regulate that kind of unhelpful automatic response to fear. 

"Chiyako's not being kept anywhere." Shikako's tone is casual, lazy, betraying no stress from the flexing of Hashirama's intent. "Tell him, Chiyako." 

Chiyako bobs her head and finds her voice. "I'm staying with Shikako." She pauses. "And I'm _fine_. I was just tired." 

Hashirama doesn't reply. Instead, Shikako snaps out, " _Up!_ " and Chiyako has to use some of the precious chakra she's recovered to leap into the branches above them. Such sudden movement is almost enough to wind her. 

Below them, a mess of mokuton branches has speared up from the earth. It looks like they would have captured rather than killed, but Chiyako is still glad to have avoided them. 

"Don't be rude," Shikako scolds Hashirama, like trying to sneakily capture them was simply _bad manners_. 

Hashirama shrugs. He's dropped his good cheer. "I'm not letting you leave with her." 

There's a tense moment and Chiyako fears for a moment that she's going to watch Senju Hashirama and Nara Shikako try to kill each other, but— 

"We'll go back with you and talk to them," Shikako offers. "To clear up this misunderstanding." 

Seeing a smile break over Hashirama's face is like seeing the sun come out. "That sounds perfect," he says, with the air of a man who knows he can win a fight any time, any place if necessary. 

Shikako drops down a few branches to perch next to Chiyako. "I'll carry you again," she says, gesturing at her back. 

Chiyako climbs on while Hashirama watches them with eyes that aren't quite as kind as Chiyako had always imagined they'd be. It's probably going to be a really awkward trip, but it's better than fighting. 


	3. The Truth

They move faster than they had before, probably because Shikako is more energized and because she doesn't have to worry about dropping Chiyako when Chiyako can cling to her back. With Hashirama leading the way, hovering almost closer than is polite, it would be impossible for Chiyako to sleep again. Instead she keeps herself held tight against Shikako's back, the Sword of the Thunder God tucked safely away for the time being, and wishes she had any idea of what passed as acceptable small talk in the pre-village era. Even something as simple as weather patterns or crop yield might be a hidden minefield of accidentally requesting information Hashirama doesn't want to give, and anyway Chiyako has no idea what Shikako is going to say to "clear up this misunderstanding" and doesn't want to accidentally ruin her plans. 

Of course...there is one thing that has almost always worked, ever since Chiyako was a kid. It's a little silly, but if they build a rapport with Hashirama he'll be much less likely to jump to violence if things go badly with the Aburame. 

Chiyako leans a little to the side so she can see Hashirama better where he's running in front of Shikako and asks, "Senju-sama, do you want to meet my friend?" 

He throws a look back at her, eyebrows raised. "Your friend?" 

"He's very small, but he's a secret third team member." 

Shikako's shoulders shake a little under her arms. Suppressed laughter. 

"One of your kikaichu?" Hashirama asks. He's fallen back to run next to Shikako instead of in front of her. 

"Close," Shikako says. 

"Not close at _all_ ," Chiyako argues. She glances at Hashirama. "You're not afraid of spiders, right? Shikako is." 

"I have a healthy respect for the danger of spiders," Shikako clarifies. 

"Right." Chiyako nods. "Everyone knows Nara Shikako isn't capable of feeling real fear. Fear is afraid of her." 

"Shut up," Shikako mutters. 

"I like spiders," Hashirama says eagerly. 

Chiyako reaches into her coat collar and when she pulls it out Mr. Cranberry is on her hand. She holds him out towards Hashirama so he can see, holding her hand flat and knowing Mr. Cranberry will stick to her with chakra and stay put despite how fast Shikako is running. "This is Mr. Cranberry," she says. "He's the first Aburame-trained ninspider." 

_Favorite Hokage!_ Mr. Cranberry taps out on her hand. 

Hashirama is currently the only Hokage, so Chiyako fudges the translation and says, "He says it's an honor to meet you." 

"The honor is mine," Hashirama says very seriously. 

The trip is significantly less awkward after that. Chiyako spends a lot of time looking at the passing scenery, and eventually ascertains that they're not going back the way she and Shikako came — of course not, because it's not like the Aburame would have _stayed_ at that barn. It was just some random barn, nowhere important as far as they were concerned. Instead, Hashirama leads them to a bustling town along a wide river, the kind of place ninja can't trash without a bunch of rich potential clients suddenly becoming uninterested in becoming clients. 

Thinking about where Suttsu-chō was and how far she and Shikako had traveled, Chiyako realizes that the river running through the down is probably some section of the Naka, although the town isn't one that Chiyako recognizes. It might not exist anymore in the future. 

Because piggybacking through the town is a little weird and sneaking through town isn't going to happen while Hashirama is escorting them like enemies, Shikako stops at the edge of town to let Chiyako get down off her back and walk. Chiyako is stiff but otherwise fine, and she shoots Hashirama a thumbs up when he gives her a concerned glance. 

Chiyako is kind of annoyed he chased them down and is strongarming them into this meeting and everything, but that doesn't mean she wants to make the Shodaime worry needlessly. 

The run had taken most of the day, so it's time for dinner by now, and Shikako's doe-patterned sage markings are faded enough that she only gets a few double-takes from the civilians as they move through the city. Everyone is in clothes that Chiyako would expect to see at a festival, or in the Hyūga compound, and it makes Chiyako glad for her and Shikako's long, full-coverage coats. 

They're not exactly going to _blend in_ or anything, but at least neither of them are wearing crop tops and fishnets. 

Hashirama leads them to a hotel that briefly strikes Chiyako as startlingly old-fashioned, the kind of thing you should have to climb up a mountain and visit an isolated onsen to see, but of course...time travel. Like the clothing of everyone around them, the inn is probably exactly in fashion for the times, since this is some kind of hub of riverboat commerce. 

Chiyako really wants to go home. 

The Aburame are waiting in a private meeting room, the type that's probably also used to serve meals. There's more than just the three Shikako had fought, but none of them are Aburame who Chiyako recognizes. It would be her father's mother's father at the head of the clan right now, she thinks, but she hasn't ever seen photos of that clan head. What limited photography the Aburame of this time have access to is being used almost entirely to take pictures of insects, so she'd be more likely to recognise Aburame by their kikaichu than by their faces. 

From the signals hanging in the air, Chiyako can tell that they've been waiting tensely in this room for a long, long time. And she can sense their sharp relief when she walks in, washing over her like a wave. In return, they'll know that she's a little wound up and a lot tired but not without a hive. 

And then Chiyako has to stop because Shikako has stopped walking. And Chiyako looks where she's looking and— 

Uchiha Madara is lounging on the other side of the room, like a large cat on the verge of going for another hunt. A threat. An enemy. The greatest enemy the village had ever faced, more powerful even than _Pein_. 

And Hashirama is still behind them, bringing up the rear. 

"Uchiha-sama," Shikako says, her voice extremely controlled and carefully neutral. 

Madara raises his eyebrows at her. "Nara," he greets. His eyes flicker over Chiyako briefly, and then he deliberately looks away, disinterested. 

Chiyako lets out the breath she'd been holding. 

"Well, now that we're all here," Hashirama says behind them with false cheer, "let's sit down and clear up this misunderstanding!" 

It's really _not_ a request, so they sit. Shikako positions herself between Chiyako and Hashirama — or, more likely, between her and _Madara_ — and that leaves Chiyako technically sitting next to Yūta, although he's a fair distance away because the Aburame are all seated clear on the other side of the room. 

"Before we...discuss," the Aburame sitting in the middle of the group says, "we would like our medic to check Chiyako's hive." 

"That sounds reasonable," Hashirama says. 

"It's up to Chiyako," Shikako shoots back. In Konoha, you have to be a highly ranked medic to decide a ninja will be given a medical examination against that ninja's consent. It basically only happens in cases of poisoning or mental jutsu damage or that kind of thing; forcing that kind of issue is _dangerous_ , even if the patient is only a newly-minted chūnin like Chiyako. 

Yūta had seemed competent, for the time period, and genuinely concerned. Unlikely to do anything to mess with her hive. Also, Chiyako kind of feels bad about kicking him and having Mr. Cranberry bite him and everything. She sneaks a glance at him. His face isn't _too_ swollen. Her hive isn't picking up any aggression from his hive. 

"As long as we don't have to leave the room," Chiyako says. Yūta probably wouldn't try to kidnap her again, and he wouldn't get far even if he did, but Chiyako is still kind of touchy about the last time. 

Yūta crosses the room and performs the same assessment he'd used on her before in the barn. It's not like the pure yin blue-green diagnostic jutsu favored by Konoha, but Chiyako thinks that the in-clan Aburame medics use some version of it still because it feels pretty familiar. 

Her hive senses vibrations from it, and they vibrate back in a way they couldn't have done before. Chiyako doesn't know what exactly the vibrations _mean_ , because that's not how a hive usually communicates with its host, but Yūta's emotions suddenly read clearly surprised and even pleased. 

"How..." he mutters. 

"When I get too low on chakra they hibernate." 

"Fascinating." 

"So she's not hurt?" Hashirama asks. He looks eager to hear the answer, and almost excited at the idea that she's actually fine. 

Chiyako kind of really likes him. So it will be even _more_ awkward now if Shikako decides she has to beat him up. 

"She shouldn't be exerting herself," Yūta says carefully, "but she should recover." He returns to his seat. 

Hashirama's expression is practically blinding. Even Uzumaki Naruto doesn't smile _this_ much. "Excellent." He claps his hands. "Now. Nara-san. Let's get down to the bottom of this 'misunderstanding' about Chiyako. We can all agree that she's an Aburame, can't we?" 

"Sure," Shikako agrees. She's deliberately relaxed into a lazy pose that would be more familiar on Shikako's twin, Shikamaru, or on Shikako's teacher, Kakashi. It's a way of asserting that she feels in control of the current situation, although the body language might be lost on the Aburame. 

"We are also interested to know how you got her away from the clan and how long you've had her," the Aburame who seems to be in charge says. After a slight pause he adds, "We were not under the impression that the Nara were interested in bloodline theft." 

Shikako pulls a face. "Yeah, we don't do that," she says. "Chiyako and I met when she was a kid." 

"I twisted my ankle and she brought me home," Chiyako adds helpfully. It's actually one of her favorite childhood memories, even though it had started scary and painful and unhappy. By that point she'd already heard a _lot_ about Nara Shikako from Shino, and then there Shikako was, being just as friendly and helpful and strong as Shino had always said she was. 

"If that were true—" the Aburame starts, but Shikako doesn't let him finish. 

"There's no way for you to verify it," Shikako says, "because we're from the future." 

The room is _dead_ silent. 

Chiyako hadn't thought they were just going to _admit it_ like that. 

"I thought about trying to just explain earlier but you were trying to kill me," Shikako says thoughtfully. "But, you know, I'm willing to call it even." 

There's another beat of silence, and then Uchiha Madara _laughs_. A short chuckle, painfully sharp. 

Shikako turns her head slowly to look at him. 

"It's a terrible lie, but it's bold," Madara says. "Tell me, how far forward in the future are you claiming to be from?" 

"Sixty years," Shikako says blandly. 

"Only sixty years until we're trusting each other with our younger ninja would be wonderful," Hashirama says brightly. 

Madara opens his mouth again and then quickly closes it, giving the impression that he's just been kicked under the table even though the low tables in this room don't really allow for that kind of interplay. Maybe Hashirama used Mokuton where no one else could see — bloodline jutsu users as old as Hashirama generally don't need seals. 

"Do you have any proof?" Hashirama continues eagerly, looking like he's keeping an open mind through sheer force of will. 

Chiyako glances at Shikako. Shikako looks back at her. 

"The sword," Shikako suggests. 

Chiyako nods. "Pictures?" 

"Yeah." 

Chiyako takes the hilt of the Sword of the Thunder God out of her coat pocket and lays it on the table. It makes Hashirama _actually gasp_. 

Shikako, meanwhile, twists several photos out of her storage seal. A kunoichi club photo taken on a day Tsunade had visited, Shikako's Team 7 picture, another picture of Shikako's team sitting at a shogi board. It doesn't escape Chiyako's notice that these are all pictures that it would be fairly easy for Shikako to replace, if they're lost here today. 

"May we inspect a few of your kikaichu?" the Aburame leader asks. 

Chiyako wordlessly signals an affirmative and sends one over to each Aburame. Shikako hands the Sword of the Thunder God over to Hashirama, and that leaves Madara with the pictures. 

The Aburame inspect the kikaichu, conferring quietly. Hashirama turns the sword on and looks _delighted_. Madara has been given the stack of photos with the Kunoichi Club photograph on top, probably because it has both Shikako and Chiyako in it; he studies the photo carefully and even turns his Sharingan on to inspect it. 

"I find it hard to believe you've defeated Tobirama and stole his sword since I last saw him," Hashirama confesses. "I'm not sure why a Nara would have it, though." 

"Everyone knows Tsunade-sama gave it to Shikako as a sign of her favor," Chiyako says. "Because she was so impressed." 

Shikako shoots Chiyako a look that Chiyako can't quite decipher. It's _true_ , and everyone _knows_ it's true, so there can't be any harm in telling Hashirama about it since they're already telling him the entire truth. He's technically the Hokage right now, anyway, so they probably really should be following his orders and answering his questions, anyway, right? 

"Tsunade?" Hashirama asks, looking even _more_ delighted. 

Shikako turns away from giving Chiyako the _look_ and gestures at the Kunoichi Club photo. "The fifth Hokage. She's in that first picture. The blonde with the pigtails." 

Hashirama leans over a _little_ bit, but he definitely hesitates to get into Madara's space. Chiyako would have expected he'd just get _right_ up into Madara's personal space, because they're pretty close, right? They're probably still comrades at this point? But Hashirama acts like there's an invisible wall between them, and Madara has to pass the photograph off to him. 

Chiyako misses Hashirama's reaction to seeing Tsunade, though, because Madara sucks in a dramatic breath when he sees the Team 7 photograph. The air is practically sucked out of the room. 

"Who is this?" Madara demands, so forcefully it's like he thinks if he asks hard enough the person in question will materialize in front of him. 

His eyes are definitely focused on Uchiha Sasuke. 

"That's my teammate Sasuke," Shikako says, her voice perfectly level. "The next picture is us playing shoji together with my brother." 

Chiyako suddenly gets the impression that Shikako might have some ulterior motives for picking the photos she picked beyond how easy it would be to replace them. There's clearly something about Sasuke — _Hashirama_ isn't so worked up over seeing Tsunade, although he does seem absolutely delighted. 

"The kikaichu are unlike any of the breeds my clan is working on now or has worked on in the past," the Aburame leader says. 

It's kind of an inappropriate time for him to speak up, because it cuts straight through whatever revelation is happening for Madara, but Chiyako forces herself to take her mind off that and focus on the Aburame. He probably doesn't even realize that Madara is _having_ an emotion, Chiyako realizes belatedly — the clan clearly hasn't joined Konoha yet, so they haven't had close contact with outsiders except for business dealings. Madara is using a scent-hiding technique of some kind, so the Aburame are flying blind with him. Hashirama, too. 

Maybe Chiyako should figure out how to warn the Shodaime that hiding his scent is probably delaying his negotiations with the Aburame. 

"It...would be impossible to diverge this much from the clan's breeding practices without decades of time, and impossible to do so without many hives and hosts to draw from." The Aburame leader goes on, and then he studies Chiyako carefully. "You were on a mission with the Nara? Alone?" 

"There's no one the clan would trust more than Shikako," she tells them firmly. "Besides, mixed-clan teams are more adaptable, so I don't usually work with other Aburame in the field." 

"An interesting argument for cooperation," Hideyo notes, without a hint as to if he thinks it's a _good_ argument or not. 

"That was on our list!" Hashirama says happily. "Among other benefits of joining." 

"If you are from the future," Madara cuts in, "why did you come back? A warning?" His eyes are sharp, his tone sharper. Chiyako can't stand to look at him and focuses on Shikako instead. With Shikako here, it doesn't matter if Madara gets mad. 

"We had a strange run in with an enemy's sealing technique," Shikako says. Her tone somehow manages to convey that she finds this to be a perfectly normal turn of events. She glances at Hashirama. "Tobirama-sama's help would be appreciated. We'd like to go home." 

"He'll be fascinated," Hashirama promises. "...Assuming we can convince him you're really from the future!" 

The Aburame have a perfectly quiet, wordless argument between themselves, signals flying between their hives. Chiyako catches only parts of it, just enough to expect it when the Aburame contingent's leader says, "You invited us to stay, so as to better understand your village. We will do so." 

Hashirama seems to think that this is the best news yet. "Then we can have our meeting back in the village," he says, "and let these two rest." 

* * *

The Aburame insist on paying for her and Shikako's room, which Shikako very quietly explains is because they don't want Chiyako to be in debt to Hashirama — apparently that kind of thing is a major concern in pre-village culture. They probably think that paying for the room means Shikako will be in debt to _them_ , which is pretty funny because that's exactly the kind of useless social rule that Shikako loves to steamroll right over if she can't twist it to her purposes. She and Shikako are fed a real dinner and then they take turns in the bath. 

It's time for the conversation Chiyako's been dreading. 

When Shikako comes back, Chiyako starts at the conversation sideways: "Do you really think Tobirama will help?" 

Shikako hums, running her hands through her hair to dry it with chakra in a way that would just make Chiyako's hair friz up into a puffy, unmanageable cloud. "I've read some of his notes, and Hashirama is definitely right that time travel is exactly the right kind of thing to catch his attention. Plus he'll probably do what Hashirama tells him to do. But I think he'll be more suspicious." 

"Oh," Chiyako says. She's not really sure how they can do _more_ to convince Tobirama that they're from the future than they've done already. So she asks Shikako, and gets a _sharp_ smile in return. 

"I've read his _notes_ ," Shikako says, so gleeful that even Chiyako can easily read it on her face. "I know exactly what he's researching. Even better, I know what he _wants_ to research. Ideas he's had and hasn't even written down yet." 

That does all make Chiyako feel better. It makes her feel almost...hopeful, because if anyone can send them forward in time then it's definitely the Nidaime and Shikako working together. But it doesn't quiet the real question, the one she wants to ask... 

_Do you think we'll be able to get home?_

But she can't ask that, she decides, even though it's on the tip of her tongue. She can work out for herself that Shikako probably isn't sure, and that it won't make either of them feel better to make Shikako either admit that out loud or lie. It's important not to ask questions one doesn't want the answer to, anyway. 

So she says, "The man we were looking for. All those people. We won't find them, will we? That seal wasn't _supposed_ to send us here." Shikako had _done something_ before the seal could do what it had done to everyone else. 

Shikako grimaces. "We won't even find bodies." 

* * *

The hive wakes Chiyako late that night. The moon is painting the room in shades of grey and silver. Shikako's at the door, the doe-patterned lights of her back facing Chiyako and her shoulders relaxed, unthreatened. A member of Chiyako's hive has found its way to the visitor at the door and back and confirms that it's Senju Hashirama standing on the threshold, speaking to Shikako with a tone softened in a futile effort not to wake Chiyako. "I regret my implicit threat," he's saying to Shikako. 

"Don't trouble yourself," Shikako says. "Really." 

"—You clearly don't feel safe," Hashirama goes on, as if Shikako had said nothing. "But I won't hurt you. And neither will Madara. You can get some rest—" 

" _Hokage-sama_ ," Shikako interrupts. 

The term of address hangs in the air for a moment. Chiyako wonders what Hashirama's face looks like. 

Shikako sighs, shifts a little as she brushes her bangs out of her face. "I don't think you'll attack us, or that anything could get past you. I'm just...exactly as chakra exhausted as Chiyako. It seems better to recover in the village." 

"Oh." A floorboard creaks; Hashirama is awkwardly shifting his weight. "Would you like company?" 

The shine of moonlight on Shikako's hair shifts as she nods. "Let's go downstairs so we don't wake Chiyako." 

Chiyako drifts back asleep before the door closes behind Shikako. 


	4. Connection

They travel up along the river to get to Konoha, a trip that takes under a day. It's only in the last mile of the trip that things start looking _right_ , with large Hashirama trees, almost no underbrush. The group they're traveling with still doesn't take to the branches, which Chiyako and Shikako share a look over. Maybe it won't develop until more of the area is covered in Hashirama trees? 

Before they can actually reach the village, Senju Tobirama comes to meet them, arriving in a shunshin that's devoid of leaves. He checks Hashirama for visible injury or distress first, then registers Madara, the Aburame delegation, and Chiyako. Finally his eyes land on Shikako. He looks at her like he might want to take her apart. 

Shikako waves. "Being a threat is currently an incidental byproduct of trying to stay upright," she says. "Tell him, Hokage-sama." 

She and Hashirama had, evidently, bonded over their all-night conversation. 

"It's true," Hashirama says eagerly. "She doesn't mean it, so stop looking at her like that. Look! Things went well with the Aburame! Mostly." 

"Very well, if they're bringing children," Tobirama agrees, with a flick of his eyes towards Chiyako. Even though Chiyako is nearly fourteen! 

"It's a long story!" Hashirama starts forward again, herding Tobirama back towards the village. "We'll talk about it over lunch." 

Even _Chiyako_ can see Tobirama bite back some kind of comment and reluctantly allow himself to be harassed through the village gates and towards the center of the village. The Senju brothers don't make them stop and sign in — in fact, there doesn't seem to be any sign-in process at all, only guards at the gate who seem evenly split between Senju and Uchiha. 

Chiyako very carefully _doesn't_ stare at the Uchiha. Especially when Madara peels off from their group to discuss something with the wall guard. 

At the center of the village there's a Hashirama-wood building that might be generously called a tower. It's three stories tall, when most of the other buildings are only one. There's administrative desks and a scattering of sturdy tables on the first floor. On the second floor, there's a hallway of offices and Hashirama pokes his head into one. "Tōka?" he says. "Can you get two guest houses prepared?" 

A woman inside the office (presumably Tōka) says she can. 

"Aburame-san, why don't you all go inspect your lodgings," Shikako breaks in. "I think some of what we'll have to discuss with Hokage-sama and his brother is going to be information restricted to Konoha ninja." She gives them a winsome smile that's warped a little by the continued shine of senjutsu leaking from her skin. 

The Aburame confer silently, as always. This time, Chiyako is close enough to them from her perch on Shikako's back to join in and protect her certainty and security in her current position. She even lands a kikaichu on Yūta, an invitation for him to do the same to her. 

"Very well," the leader says after a moment. They follow Tōka back down to the first floor, while Shikako continues following Hashirama upstairs. 

The entire third floor is Hahirama's office. He has a view of the main street out his windows and a great deal of scrolls covering his desk, which Chiyako thinks is the same desk that Tsunade-sama still uses. Or, at least, the one Tsunade uses was made as a replica. 

Shikako lets Chiyako down out of her piggyback and Chiyako claims the nearest seat when Hashirama gestures at it. Tobirama lurks by the windows to the left, probably because it will be easy to signal for back up from there if need be. Shikako stands next to Chiyako's chiar with her hands in the pockets of her coat. 

Hashirama sits down at his desk, beams at them, and then introduces Tobirama even though everyone in the room definitely already knows who he is. Then he says, "This is Aburame Chiyako...and this is Nara Shikako." 

" _Nara?_ " Tobirama says, "The Nara haven't—" 

"Oh, right," Hashirama says over Tobirama, "also they're a Konoha team from the future!" 

Tobirama narrows his eyes at Hashirama. "I burned that section of my notes. They're lying." 

"I edited a seal trap in the middle of it being sprung," Shikako interrupts. 

"You did not," Tobirama asserts. "No one can do that." 

Shikako shrugs. "Maybe I'll give you a demonstration later." 

"Even _if_ it were possible, I fail to see what kind of seal trap adjustment would result in time travel." 

"In your Hiraishin notes, you theorized that time is just an extra dimension of space," Shikako says. "Which I've now technically proven." 

"My notes," Tobirama says flatly. 

"My granddaughter Tsunade is the Godaime Hokage," Hashirama butts in cheerfully. "She gave Shikako access." 

Chiyako, feeling helpful, adds, "Shikako is her seal master." 

"Ah, I wouldn't go that far, it's a hobby," Shikako protests. 

"She's a valuable jōnin of Konoha and we have to help her get home," Hashirama concludes. 

"I'll listen to all your evidence," Tobirama says, with the air of someone who's being generous. "Convince me." 

* * *

The guest houses are set up near where the hospital will someday be built and share a small courtyard that doubles as a private training field. None of the Aburame have taken advantage of it, but Chiyako isn't worried about Uchiha copying her techniques and needs _something_ to do while Shikako sleeps off her chakra exhaustion. 

Since Chiyako is still building her own chakra reserves back up, she sticks to her sword forms, using a nondescript tantō that Shikako had pulled out of storage for her. In the busy rush of taking up her new chūnin duties Chiyako hasn't had much time to practice lately, much less meet up for lessons, but now is as good a time as any to get back to it. She goes slowly at first, and often makes basic smalltalk with the Aburame, who are curious about her use of a sword. 

("I see there are more benefits to the village than teamwork," Shizu remarks one evening. Chiyako tells her all about the Kunoichi Club and how many new things she'd learned there even as a child.) 

Practicing her sword work does eventually get boring, of course. By the fifth morning of Shikako's recovery Chiyako would die for a good book or a spar, but she's definitely not going to spar with anyone while Shikako is out like a light. Not even her almost-but-not-quite clanmates next door — and anyway, they'd left early that morning for a survey of possible clan grounds. 

Chiyako is therefore alone, taking a break from kenjutsu to practice shurikenjutsu, when Uchiha Madara comes into the courtyard. 

He stays just inside the gate. He keeps his hands where she can see them. He could kill her, absolutely, if he wanted to. 

"I mean you no harm," he says. 

"I know," Chiyako says. He hasn't betrayed the village yet, after all. "Please excuse my excessive caution, Uchiha-sama. It's not about you." 

"It makes no difference." He sounds _tired_. "Just call me Madara. Or nothing. I just came to return these." He dips a hand into the pocket of his jacket and draws out the photos Shikako had shared days ago. 

Chiyako makes herself put her shuriken down on the target post she was plucking them out of and walk across the courtyard to take them back. Objectively, Chiyako is not in danger. This is probably _less_ potentially dangerous by several orders of magnitude than that week Gaara of the Desert and his siblings had subbed in for half of her Academy teachers. And she had let Konohamaru talk her and Ranmaru into starting a water fight with the Mizukage's husband during the last chūnin exam. 

Madara helped found the village, and Madara is currently part of the village. Chiyako takes the photos from him and tucks them away. She invites him in for tea. "You must have questions," she says. 

"I should go," he says. 

She nods and deliberately turns her back on him, the way she would on any other Konoha jōnin. She goes back to her shurikenjutsu, hoping this time she'll figure out the right way to tug the ninja wire to curve them around and hit the back of the post — it should be possible without using chakra to cheat, and now is the perfect time to learn. 

The gate creaks; Madara's exit. But then Madara says, "Where did you learn your shurikenjutsu?" 

She doesn't look back at him, only focusing on refastening her ninja wire and winding it back up. She has to be careful, because she can't spare the chakra to guard her fingers against the wire while she winds it. "They teach basics in the academy." 

"I see," Madara says. From the sound of his voice she thinks he's still facing away from her. "And is that standard issue ninja wire, 60 years in the future?" 

Ah. 

"No," Chiyako says slowly. "I got it from my kenjutsu instructor. Uchiha Sasuke. Sometimes he teaches us other things." 

"Maybe I will join you for that tea. If the offer is still open." 

Chiyako leads him into the Aburame's guest house, because entering the house she shares with Shikako will _definitely_ wake Shikako up and probably not in a good way. This guest house is equipped with woodstoves, metal teapots, and good quality tea just like the other guest house, and the stove is easy to light. 

There's no food to offer, but the tea is just a convenient excuse, anyway. They sit with a view out to the courtyard. 

Madara doesn't ask her anything. She thinks he probably has just one question, deep down. If he tried to voice it, he would probably ask, _Was the village worth it?_ and Chiyako would say yes. But he won't voice it, because his real question is almost definitely, _Should I stay?_

Chiyako can't answer that question for him. She tells him about Hanabi having a fight with her father and Yūhi Kurenai suggesting that Hanabi skip the permission portion of getting kenjutsu training, and about Hanabi saying, "Who'd even _agree_ to that?" and Yamanaka Ino telling them _exactly_ what to say to Sasuke to make him agree. 

"Chūnin exams can be dangerous," Chiyako tells him. "Before mine, Sasuke showed up at our training ground and stole us from Hana-sensei for an afternoon just to force us into escape and evasion training. That one afternoon of training has saved my life dozens of times." 

She follows him out into the courtyard when the tea is all drunk, intending to see him to the gate like a good host, but he pauses half way there and insists on showing her how to hit the back of the training post without using chakra along the ninja wire. It involves a careful jerk and subsequent loosening of slack so that the shuriken will reverse. He adjusts her finger positioning — reaching out carefully, proceeding gently when she lets him touch her hands. 

When she's done it correctly ten times in a row he says, "I hope it saves your life someday," and leaves. 


	5. Epilogue

Sixty years later and technically several timelines over, Chiyako finds herself in that dilapidated barn again, a meter deeper into the barn and looking out the doors instead of facing away from them. Her lost hive members are just where she left them, none of them having been on the ground when the seal was activated. 

The enemy lands just under the hay loft, clutching the wound in his shoulder. "The Nidaime's secret technique! It's mine at last!" he shouts. 

Shikako removes his head from his shoulders. 

"What an idiot," she sighs. She drags his body out of the now-inert seal carved into the barn floor, and Chiyako follows up with the guy's head. 

"Rock missing-nin," Chiyako notes. 

Shikako grimaces. "Tsunade is going to send me to look for all the Yondaime's litter in the Land of Earth." She seals the corpse up. "Let's go." 

"Should we copy the seal before we destroy it?" 

"I basically reverse engineered it with Tobirama already, if someone in R&D really wants it." 

That works for Chiyako. She turns around when they've cleared the barn, double-checks where all of her kikaichu are, and molds chakra — she's got this down to just _Rat_ — _Ox_ — _Tiger_ and then there's fire against the back of her teeth and she's exhaling in a steady stream, practically vaporizing the barn before she even ends the jutsu. 

Shikako puts the fire out with a water jutsu and then they go to find their client in Suttsu-chō. 


End file.
